#and throw it at the noumus while screaming 'street smarts!!!' at the top of his lungs

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 261: Wakey Wakey

Previously on BnHA: The heroes decided that the only way to beat the villains was with an insane winner-takes-all gambit involving two simultaneous attacks, one on the Pliff base in Gunga Mountain, and the other on a quaint little hospital in Jakku that just so happens to be where Ujiko is keeping his Noumuraki in cold storage along with all his other evil science junk. We still don’t know what the fuck is going on in Gunga, but over in Jakku things are shockingly not really going according to plan! First Ujiko was stabbed by a Noumu space slug and melted away into nothing because HE’S A FAAAAAAAKE. Then a bunch of other Noumu came running out of the morgue to distract everyone while the real Ujiko scuttled about his lab in a panic in his lab and literally called the heroes “THOSE MEDDLESOME HEROES” because he is literally a cartoon villain, only with the evilness cranked up to 11. Thankfully before he could warp away and escape, Miruko, a.k.a. the queen of this entire arc, busted down the door and crushed John-chan like a bug (RIP JOHN-CHAN) and took hold of my heart and was all “THIS IS MINE NOW” and I was like “okay” and now she’s gonna kick Ujiko’s ass????! Or so we can hope anyway?

Today on BnHA: Well Miruko almost kicks Ujiko’s ass, and he almost doesn’t manage to punch in the activation code for his High End Noumus, and we almost manage to be spared the chaotic scene where they all come to life and wreak havoc. But unfortunately “almost” is as close as we get, mainly because every single other character decides to hang back in the hospital entrance fighting a bunch of nobodies rather than bothering to help Miruko out. Everyone that is, except Crust, who provides some assistance by (a) not mentioning to anyone how there’s a whole other tunnel that leads out of the lab and goes DIRECTLY OUTSIDE TO WHERE MY CHILDREN PRESUMABLY ARE, and (b) arriving at the lab and then not really doing anything else at all except shouting a bit. So apparently this is what we’re working with. Thankfully Miruko is somehow still alive, because it looks like she’s about to have to fight these guys pretty much on her own. Unfortunately Ujiko takes advantage of all the chaos to abscond the fuck out of there. And so the chapter leaves off with one of those “record scratch, freeze frame, yep that’s me you’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation” moments. Fun times.

so Ujiko got a new name last week; he is now Garaki Kyuudai. you can read all about the meaning of the name on Caleb’s twitter if you feel so inclined. so we are now moving on, and we’ll see how many times I forget this new name and have to go back and look it up (ETA: at least twice so far)

so hopefully today will be the day when we finally discover just how and why everything is going to go terribly wrong, because it’s getting stressful bracing myself for that shoe to drop every damn week. if you’re going to put my kids in terrible danger than GO AHEAD AND PUT THEM IN DANGER ALREADY THEN. please. I can’t go on like this

holy shit you guys

see, now this is the kind of fanservice I can get behind. too bad I can’t really focus on that at all right now because

well then. it’s only the thing I’ve been simultaneously anticipating and dreading ever since the start of the My Villain Academia arc! don’t mind me guys. I’m just gonna. sit here nearly frozen but also kind of vibrating/pulsing ever so slightly

OH NO MIRUKO WHAT DID YOU DO

holy shit you guys. I RECOGNIZE THAT BIG BLACK DOOR FROM BACK IN MY KHR DAYS. ONLY BACK THEN IT WASN’T A DOOR AT ALL, BUT A WALL. A GLORIOUS AND TERRIBLE WALL WHICH SINGLEHANDEDLY BROUGHT ONE OF THE STRONGEST CHARACTERS TO HIS KNEES DURING A DO-OR-DIE “HEROES INVADE THE VILLAINS’ LAIR” ARC VERY MUCH LIKE THIS. oh my god. and now he has returned, after all these years, to once again fuck up the heroes’ plans at a critical and devastating moment. curse you wall

also did we really need to see this

Horikoshi: “you know what I haven’t drawn yet that I’d really like to draw. brains. just some brains splattered around all messily. children love that almost as much as they love dead dogs”

ffsdsdlfkjl YOU KNOW WHAT WE ALSO DIDN’T NEED TO SEE, HOLY CHRIST

A FLASHBACK TO UJIKO “COMFORTING” A BLOODIED JOHN-CHAN AFTER A SUCCESSFUL TEST RUN OF HIS NOUMU CAPABILITIES, OR WHATEVER THE HELL THIS IS. DID YOU GUYS ASK FOR THIS? I SURE AS HELL DIDN’T. I HAVE NO REAL WAY OF KNOWING THIS FOR SURE, BUT I’M GONNA GO OUT ON A LIMB AND SAY THAT ABSOLUTELY NO ONE WANTED TO SEE THIS. LIKE, I CAN’T SAY THAT WITH CERTAINTY, BUT ACTUALLY I CAN THOUGH

ugh. anyway. “just Noumu Arc things,” Horikoshi says with a shrug. listen you son of a --

meanwhile if Ujiko gets all angry and tearfully sics all of the High Ends on Miruko in his rage, I will... actually I’ll sit here not being even remotely surprised at all, but still freaking out though. damn it, this is why I need that freaking shoe to drop already like I said. that thing is just sitting there like a loose snack in a malfunctioning vending machine and I’m standing here cursing and thumping on the glass and asking if anybody has a quarter

GODDAMMIT I DON’T NEED TO HEAR HIS FUCKING EULOGY FOR HIS PET MONSTER WHICH USED TO BE AN INNOCENT LITTLE CHILD UNTIL HE MAIMED AND TORTURED THE HUMANITY OUT OF IT

is that freaking All for One in the top right panel. YOU’RE ON MY SHITLIST TOO MISTER

looooooooool :’)

lol I think we finally got that shoe loose folks. sob. go ahead and activate them you crusty old fuck

also are these things in the little tubes... quirks??? like what the hell

so now Ujiko’s screaming (I guess if he’s upset we can take that as a good sign?), and meanwhile Miruko is all

still smiling even now. god how I love her. “I’LL FIND OUT IF I KICK HIM” GOD MIRUKO WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE. IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A FEMALE HIMBO. LIKE WITH LESS PEJORATIVE CONNOTATIONS THAN THE ORIGINAL “BIMBO” AND WITH MORE OF A “SOMEONE WHO’S REALLY HOT AND COULD CRUSH YOU WITH HER PINKY AND IS ALSO A FEW ICE BRICKS SHORT OF AN IGLOO” KIND OF VIBE TO IT. HERBO??? OR WHAT ABOUT... SHIMBO

anyway Endeavor is all “catch him” which is some great fucking advice coming from someone that hasn’t even made it inside the morgue entrance yet. what fucking good are you. at least he fried the space slug

but unfortunately that hasn’t quite solved all their problems yet

honestly though, he should still go after her. like, screw all the rest of this. get your priorities in order!! she just said there were a ton of REALLY STRONG-LOOKING!! Noumus over there too, and meanwhile she’s the only one there because none of these other dinguses seem to realize that if you want to stop the fucking Noumus you need to stop the guy in charge. otherwise they’ll just keep on coming!!

you know what, forget what I implied a couple paragraphs ago about Miruko being a few twists short of a slinky. she may have a straightforward “hit first and ask questions later” approach to things, but it’s increasingly clear that she’s still in possession of this team’s one shared brain cell right now

(ETA: the more that I think about this the madder I get. I count at least seven heroes in this shot. you’re telling me you couldn’t spare a single one??)

ooh we’re cutting to Mandalay!

she says the last of the civilians have just been evacuated from the hospital! I don’t know why she’s yelling this to them out loud and not thinking it at them like in the forest arc but whatever. the evacuation part got me thinking about the kids and now I desperately want to see how they’re doing but first we have to wait for this High End situation to finish spiraling out of control I guess

-- holy shit holy shit holy shit

okay so this guy, who was the closest behind Miruko -- I forget who he is but I remember he was one of the top ten... goddammit let me look it up... okay yeah, he’s Crust, the number six hero, whose quirk I don’t think we know yet -- anyway so he’s running down the corridor and, well...

first of all he says hmmm way too much. but more importantly he just confirmed that at least one of these corridors leads directly outside. without passing through the hospital at all. implying that the Noumus can bypass the squad of heroes entirely and escape to rampage out on the mountainside

so the one job that the heroes had today, which was to make sure that none of the villains escaped, has already proven a failure. there are Noumus outside. and who else is outside in the mountains of Jakku right now, you guys? EXACTLY

meanwhile this fucking boomer hasn’t even bothered to say this part out loud so that the other heroes can hear and realize that there are potentially escaped Noumus on the lam! like it would be nice to maybe mention that so that they know their plan has sprung a leak and also so that Endeavor can WARN HIS FUCKING INTERNS JESUS CHRIST

anyway so Crust has stumbled upon a group of Noumus and is attacking them and still not revealing a thing to his pals, thanks so much!!!

and now Miruko is leaping at Ujiko so that means ladies and gentlemen it’s finally TIME FOR SOMETHING BAD TO HAPPEN!

WHY IS THIS TAKING A WHOLE FUCKING PAGE

no fucking duh?? holy shit. he may be an evil genius but he’s really not that great at thinking on his feet

-- oh shit?!

A WILD RAY OF HOPE APPEARS?? looooool are you serious? that must mean that they’re so fucking powerful the heroes wouldn’t stand a chance if they were activated. so despite all appearances, Horikoshi is actually not throwing them to the wolves just yet and there is still a thin layer of plot armor surrounding them!

--but what the hell IS HE TURNING THEM ON ANYWAY?!

sob, he is. holy shit he’s gonna sic a High End on my wife and it’ll be the strongest fucking thing we’ve ever seen and meanwhile Ujiko will be watching all “hur hur it’s not even using 10% of its power” fucking fuck me

WHAT THE FUCK

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME THERE’S ANOTHER WARPING NOUMU JESUS

so he just left?? but turned the Noumus on first?? so now they have ten fucking hours before these things get strong enough to level the whole fucking planet are you shitting meeeee. and did he just leave Tomura there too or did he also warp him out?

wait a sec no he’s still there. lol what the fuck. so did Mocha-chan create a duplicate of him then and that’s what Miruko kicked?

I’m so confused lmao

(ETA: still confused tbh. but we have bigger fish to fry!)

but anyway. this is what we came for though

wakey wakey. hey can someone go slap Endeavor and all those other heroes for me for deciding it was more important to battle the “small fries” out in front rather than give Miruko some fucking backup so it wouldn’t be all on her to stop this shitclown from remote activating his unstoppable army of death? fucking Mic could have ended this whole show with one shouted “YODELAYHEEHOO~” down this echo-y corridor for fuck’s sake!! Aizawa could have stopped Mocha from using her quirk! god damn! I hope you’re all happy!!

LMAO HOLY FUCKING SHIT

THAT’S THE SCARIEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN?! HAHAHA MY HEART IS GENUINELY RACING, I’M DEFAULTING TO MY “HAUNTED HOUSE LAUGHTER” INSTINCT IN WHICH I KEEP LAUGHING BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS TOO FUCKING TENSE AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO

LIKE, THE ONE NEARLY BIT HER FUCKING FACE OFF BEFORE SHE KICKED ITS BITEY HAND IN HALF, BUT MEANWHILE THE OTHER ONE IS TRYING TO GRAB HER ENTIRE HEAD WITH ITS MASSIVE FUCKING HAND ATTACHED TO AN ARM THAT’S LITERALLY AS LONG AS MIRUKO IS TALL, AND THAT HAND IS BIG ENOUGH THAT IF IT CLOSED ITS FIST HER HEAD WOULD LITERALLY POP LIKE A GRAPE HOLY SHIT?!?!

NO THANK YOU I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING BUT THAT’S ALL RIGHT I DON’T WANT IT TAKE IT BACK PLEASE

oh thank fuck I think Miruko escaped?? or they just threw her into that wall, at least. well still better then getting your head crushed

and now these two are trying to talk because fuck me I forgot high ends can fucking talk

“h...hero...” took me a second to figure out what they were saying there but damned if that didn’t send a chill down my spine!

also Miruko really did kick its hand right the fuck off, god I love her. even if it is instantly growing back

you guys I literally can’t stop laughing lol

HAHAHA WE’RE SO FUCKED!?!

ALSO IS THAT ONE GUY CRIMSON RIOT?!!

hmm lol maybe not. idk though he just gave me that vibe

LOOK HOW HAPPY THEY ALL ARE LOL

THEY JUST WANT TO KILL THEM ALL THAT’S SO GREAT. THIS IS ALL SO WONDERFUL THEY KO’D MIRUKO IN 0.4 SECONDS AND NOW THEY WANT TO “GO BERSERK” WHAT A GRAND TIME WE’RE IN FOR

LMAO ARE YOU SERIOUS

FUCKING CRUST OUT HERE LIKE TROY WITH THE PIZZA BOXES. DO YOU WANT TO JUST TURN THE FUCK AROUND RIGHT NOW BOY. NGL IF THEY RIP YOUR HEAD OFF I’M NOT EVEN GONNA DO ANYTHING EXCEPT ROLL MY EYES. WATCH HIM NOT SHOUT A WARNING TO THE OTHERS EVEN NOW

(ETA: I s2g though. hello?! is your headset broken???)

and he’s being greeted by this big guy with a gear head and a weird lumpy spine

somehow at first I thought that first lump on his back was an “R” symbol because I’m bad at interpreting images, so now I want to call him Rusty because I’m also bad at coming up with nicknames on the spot. I’m sorry Rusty

anyway so Rusty and Crust are immediately getting into an argument and meanwhile Ujiko is just SITTING THERE BECAUSE HE CAN, NOW

because Endeavor, Aizawa, Mic, and the others all decided it was more important to abandon their most important target in favor of trying to contain the comparatively harmless redshirt Noumus in the lobby. which is also pointless, because they’re not actually containing shit, because there are other exits besides for just the hospital! which they would fucking know if Crust was capable of relaying vital information instead of strategically saving his breath for more important things like sarcastically calling this Rusty guy “clever”

in conclusion the heroes have all picked the absolute worst time to collectively shit the bed and I’ve had it with them and they all need to retire, except for Miruko. and the kids. who are now soon to be directly in the line of fire thanks to this shitshow

LMAO HORIKOSHI YOU PIECE OF SHIT SOMEHOW I FUCKING KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO PICK THIS WEEK TO ANNOUNCE A BREAK YOU GLEEFUL LITTLE TROLL

and two weeks from now is when I’ll finally be watching the new movie though, so I don’t even know how that’s gonna work lol. guess that’s why they put the extra day in February this year. ah well

anyway! so Miruko is still alive and more reminiscent of Katsuki now than ever, which is fucking great because Crust so far has been exactly as useful as you would expect some stupid old guy with the name “crust” to be, sigh. anyway I’m glad to see my girl’s spirits haven’t been dampened

meanwhile Ujiko straight up did leave Tomura there, which is interesting lol. and so now it looks to be Miruko and Crust (with the latter’s contribution extremely in doubt) versus Rusty, Jester, Max Rebo, Girl!Noumu, and Noumu!Riot. I’m strangely not worried for Miruko because I have decided that she’s invincible, and because Horikoshi has graciously nerfed these guys a bit (please accept my dripping-with-sarcasm “gee thanks”, Horikoshi)

but I am however worried about my three sons over on the edge of town who are about to be waylaid by god knows what. not to mention all my other kids 80km away! how will their day be ruined? we shall see!

[sleepy9000]

Some thoughts on the Villain Alliance (Spoilers)

Loooong post under the cut

Now, while I don't think we have nearly enough information to make endgame predictions, with so much focus on the Eight Precepts lately I can't help but wonder what's going to happen with the other big villain group. We know almost everything about the bird gangsters now excluding a few big things- Chisaki's plan, the former don, maybe some stuff about Chronostasis- and having them to compare the VA against has given me this unexpected feeling of family. The Eight Precepts is completely structured around people being used by the ruler, with the 8 Expendables and even Mimic throwing themselves at heroes to buy the boss time and Overhaul not giving a damn about anyone's life but his own. (RIP Nemoto). Seeing Shigaraki respond to this by showing genuine care and trust in Toga and Twice, putting value in his subordinates in exactly opposite the way Overhaul behaves... it was a big shock! I suppose AfO's capture gave him a crash course about losing people and what they can mean to you. This is a big important change for Shigaraki's leadership; he's come a long way from threatening to kill Kurogiri for a small mistake in the USJ arc. So with this new leadership method, I can't wait to see how the VA will evolve under Handman's guidance. This is where I just wanna throw out some ideas about that.

Strategy

It feels like with each arc Shigaraki is directing VA missions, he gets better and better at strategy. While he had a few clever plans in USJ to deal with the pro heroes, it sorta ended there. The mooks he brought in were almost entirely useless, and he didn't even bother factoring the students into the equation which lead to the plan's downfall. In the Feild Training arc, he was more or less throwing a tantrum over Stain being more popular than him and wasted three Noumu by throwing them out into the streets to cause havoc without any sort of plan. But after his talk with Deku in the mall and receiving a wave of recruits due to Stain's legacy, he really started playing it smart. I could make an entire post about the Vanguard Action Squad, but the things he did with some of its members- Dabi, Toga, Twice, Mustard and Mr. Compress stand out- really showed some forethought into their abilities. This is made even more clear in his Shogi game with Overhaul; he recognizes that Kurogiri, Toga, and Twice are vital to the VA's mobility. If he has the same understanding for the other members- Dabi's destructive power, Compress's ridiculous power in sneak attacks, etc- then the things he could pull off would be insane.

Quirk Improvement

We see 1-A constantly training their abilities, improving their quirks and costumes to be stronger and stronger. With that said, I think it would be massively beneficial for the VA to do the same. A lot of their quirks are already ridiculous, so training them up further could snowball pretty fast. Plus, with Giran around, they could get their hands on some seriously impressive equipment. The shining example so far has been Toga's blood extractor, which paired alongside her surprising skill in combat makes her hella dangerous. If Giran loaded up his buddies with some solid stuff they could get pretty diesel pretty fast.

As for Shigaraki himself... Admittedly, I fear he might have hit his limit. Disintegration, while a powerful and very fitting weapon, is relatively simple and seems to lack much room to grow. It has strict rules and looks to stick to them. So how do I think Shigaraki can get stronger? I think it would be best to save for a post on its own, but judging by what AfO said to Best Jeanist... Handman might join Deku in the "inheriting insanely OP quirks" club.

A quick side note- to my knowledge, we still don't know what Spinner's quirk is. We know he has one because he's a lizard, and we know it isn't just being a lizard since Mandalay pointed out he hadn't used it against her. If his name and his mention of being the one to "spin Stain's dream into reality" are any indication, we could potentially be looking at a Johnny Joestar situation- and Tusk Act 4 is really something. Time will tell.

New Members

The VA has seen some serious losses since the first wave of recruits rolled in. Numbers have sunk from the peak of 14 (including the chainsaw Noumu) down to a meager 8. Arguably the biggest hitters of the Vanguard Action Squad- Muscular, Moonfish, and Mustard- are behind bars, and Magne is tragically no longer with us. The biggest loss is obviously AfO, whose guidance and connections were vital in establishing the VA. His quirk, alongside being ridiculously powerful, also provided a stream of Noumus for Shigaraki to use. And despite how much I love the current lineup, 8 villains against a whole world of heroes just won't cut it. That was made clear as day during Hideout Raid, and they don't have Sensei to bail them out anymore. So, Shigaraki is gunna need more friends in his weird evil family or at least scoop up some old ones.

I reckon that at some point, there will be a jailbreak arc in BNHA. I can't imagine another way for AfO to pass down the mantle, or for Stain to do more things as his cameo seemed to imply. If this is the case, some old VA members might make their return. The first Noumu still seems to be the strongest, and with All Might gone it could wreak havoc without much trouble. Muscular is STUPID strong- he tanked a 100% OfA hit like it was nothing and could obviously deal a shitton of damage himself. Moonfish has been pointed out multiple times to be a force to be reckoned with, and the fact that two top seeds like Bakugo and Todoroki needed the help of a fucking KAIJU to take him down seems to back it up. Mustard went down to a couple of bit players, yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that he's got a crazy quirk and was apparently a big part of the Bakugo plan. I might be biased though- I have a weakness for gas masks in character design.

Another obvious addition is whoever the traitor turns out to be. There's a ton of theorizing that I won't get into here, but whoever it is is a shoo-in for joining up.

That said, when it comes to completely new members, I have some thoughts on this as well. Everyone remembers that spiky rock monster that cameod alongside Toga, Dabi, Mustard and Spinner, and judging by what appears to be a cameo in Chapter 100 (when Midnight was talking about fighting prowess), that might be followed up on. As for other new members, well... this might be me putting on my tin hat, but I reckon Toga and Twice will grab a few from the 8 Precepts before booking it. Last chapter Twice suggested something to Toga, and alongside potentially grabbing the quirk bullets I think they might try to lure over some of Overhaul's minions. Setsuno, Hojo, and Tabe's mindset of "friendship as people spurned by society" near-flawlessly matches Shigaraki's new style. All of their quirks are easily on the level of the VA and their team dynamic is incredibly strong. I reckon having their masks removed after losing could be symbolic, and I can only imagine what they'd do under a leader that values them like Overhaul didn't. Speaking of masks being removed, this sort-of fits with the other potential expendable I think will get recruited- Rappa. Again, his quirk is no joke- his battle with Kirishima and Fatgum made that clear. But unlike the other trio, Rappa never respected "Overhole" from the start. I imagine this would make him very attractive to Toga and Twice, whose objective seems to be "piss off that bird asshole as much as possible". Plus, with Kirishima edging his way into main-characterdom and Rappa being very interested in a rematch, joining up with the VA seems the obvious next step. I mentioned something about his mask earlier- it, like those of the Trash Trio, is removed in a way. But unlike them, his mask is not forcibly taken away. It splits in HALF, showing his face and emotions underneath, when he screams out for Fatgum to continue the fight. Rappa's own desires literally and metaphorically tear his connection to Overhaul to shreds, and if that doesn't fit with the VA I don't know what does.

Sorry for the long post, I've had these things on my mind for a while. XD